She is the most beautiful rose

Chapter 366 Protect Her
them……

Those who threatened Shen Duanwen at Hanlu Temple, telling her not to investigate the past anymore, were also the masterminds behind Ms. Zhan's car accident.

Tonight's fire was not an accident; it was a lesson for Shen Duanwen.

Shen Manzhi's expression grew cold, and she remained unmoved. "Why bother? We've had a peaceful life for over twenty years. Wouldn't it be better to continue living like this?"

She spoke calmly, paused for half a second, and continued, "She can't see what you're doing now."

"I know...I know."

Shen Duanwen sat up, his eyes clearing a bit, though his breathing was heavy. He looked at Shen Manzhi with a complicated expression. "I was wrong."

The mistake was that they didn't stand up and fight back immediately when Zhan Yunqing got into trouble, which made it too late.

Shen Manzhi's fingers twitched slightly, but she didn't respond.

Even though it was their last meeting, they still made such a undignified scene.

"You found something, right?"

Otherwise, why would the other party take such drastic measures just because someone is investigating this matter?

Shen Duanwen's expression froze for a moment, then he slowly looked away from her, a sadness spreading through his eyes.

"If you don't want to talk about it, then forget it," Shen Manzhi said, not in the mood to comfort her. "If you're investigating the past because you suddenly feel indebted to her, there's really no need for that. You're just dragging yourself into it and making her restless in the afterlife."

As she finished speaking, she prepared to leave. Shen Duanwen seemed deflated, his expression dejected. "Manzhi, things are not as simple as you think."

Shen Manzhi's hands, hanging at her sides, tightened slightly.

Shen Duanwen coughed heavily a few more times, his tone gentle, "Back then, I accompanied her to collect evidence and clarify the matter of her parents' academic fraud. The relevant reports were published on the academic website, which can be considered as proving her parents' innocence. Later, we fell in love, got married, and had children... She was twenty-three years old that year, and six years have passed since then."

Everything was going smoothly until I discovered that Yunqing had started investigating the theft of her parents' research findings.

In the Zhan couple's research case, academic fraud was just one of the straws that broke the camel's back.

Their research results were stolen by the wrong person, and they were also exposed for academic fraud. The investors behind the scenes withdrew their project funds. For various reasons, a young scientific research couple was burdened with breach of contract penalties, so they committed suicide together.

Shen Duanwen was slowly taking over the company's business at the time and often came home very late. One night, he happened to see Zhan Yunqing sitting alone in the study, with various newspapers and line drawings scattered on the floor.

Two years ago, when he accompanied Zhan Yunqing to find evidence, she got into the habit of organizing her thoughts in this way.

Upon closer inspection, he identified the two circled words: "scientific research results stolen" and "academic fraud."

"Why did you bring these up again?"

He was worried that the sight of the paper would upset his wife, so he knelt down to pick it up.

"do not move!"

Zhan Yunqing's eyes were already quite bloodshot. She stopped him and gripped the newspaper in her hand tightly.

Shen Duanwen felt sorry for her, "Yunqing, haven't all of these things been investigated and clarified?"

Zhan Yunqing sat up on the sofa and rubbed his temples. "The investor behind the termination of the cooperation ultimately chose Chengyang Laboratory. The legal representative of this laboratory is the same person as the scholar who initially reported my parents for academic fraud."

Shen Duanwen looked somewhat shocked. "What?"

"Duan Wen, do you think it's possible that this lab stole my parents' research results, then used fabricated academic fraud to delay my parents' efforts to seek justice, and later the investors withdrew their funding, leading to my parents' deaths? Was all of this planned from the beginning?"

Zhan Yunqing spoke these words rationally and calmly, but the more Shen Duanwen listened, the more chills ran down his spine.

In the past few years, she was so focused on proving her parents' innocence that she overlooked the serious implications. She should have realized long ago that the fact that her academic fraud was exposed at that critical juncture was itself a huge problem.

As if recalling his deceased wife, his expression became gentle and sorrowful. "At the time, I thought she had mental problems. How come she's still investigating this matter after all these years?"

Shen Manzhi clenched her fist completely.

It took her a great deal of effort to uncover this causal relationship.

Back then, Ms. Zhan didn't have access to the advanced internet technology we have today. She relied entirely on print reports and field investigations to clarify this relationship.

Shen Manzhi asked softly, "Will you still stay with her like before?"

Should we support her without hesitation, just like we did when we were seventeen or eighteen?

Shen Duanwen parted his lips slightly, his expression somber, "It was my fault."

Shen Manzhi looked bitter.

That period was very tiring and exhausting. When Shen Duanwen heard Zhan Yunqing talk about these things, he just thought she was overthinking things and didn't say much. More than half a month later, he met with the business partner, who happened to be the project director of Chengyang Laboratory.

Shen Duanwen felt a sense of familiarity at the time, but later remembered that his wife had mentioned it. So he checked it out privately and found that it was indeed as she had said. Chengyang Laboratory had directly attracted hundreds of millions of yuan in investment because of that cooperation, and successfully squeezed into the booming technology industry circle.

However, during that period, Zhan Yunqing started leaving early and returning late, and even when he brought up the matter himself, she refused to say anything more, acting as if it had never happened.

But he still kept the matter of the Chengyang Laboratory in mind, and by taking advantage of the project connection, he managed to find out some clues.

It turns out that Chengyang Laboratory had already been cooperating with those investors for ten years.

The Zhan couple's project was funded by an investment they received eight years ago.

Shen Duanwen suddenly realized that his wife's inexplicable words that night might have revealed the truth.

He paused for a moment, then said, "But later..."

Shen Manzhi's voice trembled slightly, "Did she find any evidence?"

Those who still use such ruthless methods today, how would they have treated a helpless young woman in her twenties back then?
Shen Duanwen slowly shook his head. "One rainy night a month before the car accident, she came back soaking wet, carrying a box."

The man covered his face in anguish, “Inside the box are a pair of gold hairpins that her mother gave her years ago.” Zhan Yunqing put the box into the safe, turned around and looked at Shen Duanwen, who was full of anxiety, and gently patted his hand to comfort him, “Don’t worry, I’ll go and sleep with Zhizhi tonight.”

Shen Manzhi was still young at the time, and only remembered that Ms. Zhan had a very gentle magnolia fragrance.

“From that day on, she seemed to stop talking about her past, but her mental state deteriorated day by day. I had a feeling something was wrong, but she wouldn’t say anything, and I didn’t dare to press her, until the very last day…”

Zhan Yunqing looked at her daughter's sleeping profile, gently stroking her soft eyebrows and eyes with her fingertips, and said to him, "You must make sure Zhizhi grows up safely and happily, and protect her."

The sludge that had been weighing heavily on Shen Manzhi's heart began to resurface, stickily enveloping her soul.

Shen Duanwen looked pained. "At the time, I didn't understand what it meant."

But Shen Manzhi understood.

Just as Zhan Yunqing suspected, the interest group behind the scenes had long targeted the research results of the Zhan couple. They conspired with the Chengyang Laboratory to stage a scheme to completely expel the researchers and seize the results for themselves.

She was determined to get to the bottom of things, which threatened the interests of that group and even her family.

So Zhan Yunqing said nothing more.

But those people still wouldn't let her go.

"On the day of the car accident, the project director of Chengyang Laboratory came into my office with gifts. It was him..."

Shen Duanwen had never found some things so difficult to say.

The young man, who was about the same age as him, had a smile on his face, like a cunning fox, or a wolf that inspired disgust and fear.

"I heard there was a car accident at the Changfeng Street intersection, two dead and one injured. Tsk, what a pity."

Shen Duanwen frowned slightly; the matter of human life and death sounded flippant in his words.

He remained calm and replied, "There are countless roads, but safety is the most important."

Turning around, I received a call from Zhan Yunqing, which, like a death knell, kept shaking on the coffee table.

Feeling uneasy, he gave the other person an apologetic gesture, walked to the window to answer the call, and gently called the other person's name in a soft voice.

But what he received in response was a cold notification: "The owner of this phone has been in a car accident. Are you a family member? Come to Changfeng Street immediately!"

Shen Duanwen gripped his phone tightly and turned around abruptly.

On the single sofa, a man with his legs crossed, leisurely sipping tea from a teacup, was watching him with a smile.

"I already said, it's a real pity."

Two dead and one injured.

A chill ran down Shen Duanwen's spine in that instant.

“Mr. Shen, investigating things you shouldn’t have to do comes at a price. Your wife was a trustworthy person; she didn’t reveal anything to you before she died. But if you’re really curious…”

Shen Duanwen trembled with rage. "What exactly do you want to do?"

The man looked at him with an innocent expression. "I remember you have a three-year-old daughter, right? She's fair-skinned and adorable."

Zhan Yunqing placed her family in a safe zone, but then jumped into the cage prepared by the other side.

Shen Duanwen did not investigate the matter further.

"Is this why you've always been unwilling to talk about what happened back then?"

Two dead and one injured.

The other party set a trap, and Zhan Yunqing and the truck driver were doomed to die. Du Heping's family was innocently implicated and separated from the rest of the family.

"for me?"

The interest group used both "framing" and "commercial strangulation" to coerce Shen Duanwen into covering up the truth, yet he managed to make it sound so dignified.

Shen Manzhi's eyelashes trembled slightly. She took a deep breath, as if she was laughing in anger, and looked at him with reddened eyes. "Are you still trying to say that you've treated me so badly for the past twenty years, and that it was all for my sake?"

Shen Duanwen's expression was extremely complicated, like an undercurrent of struggle. Sadness, guilt, and surprise were all condensed in his eyes, and his voice was so hoarse that he could not speak.

He covered his face again, ashamed to face anyone, and said, "I'm sorry."

I loved someone deeply when I was young, but later...

Only the cold, beeping sound of medical equipment remained in the ward, and silence spread between the two.

"So you're telling me all this now just so I'll stop investigating these things?"

[Shut her up, completely silence her, or exploit her weaknesses...]

That's what that group of people said to Shen Duanwen last year at Hanlu Temple.

She calmed herself, her voice cold, "Is it because my investigation into this matter has caused you trouble?"

Even though that's not what I really think, I always blurt out hurtful words without any restraint.

“It’s my own fault, I deserve it,” Shen Duanwen said bitterly. “I just… don’t want you to get hurt because of this anymore.”

Shen Manzhi blinked slowly. "But for the past twenty years, you have been hurting me."

Shen Duanwen suddenly froze.

Aside from her emotional fluctuations when mentioning Zhan Yunqing, she remained calm throughout, as if simply stating a fact: "She protected you completely, but you still couldn't keep your promise."

It prevented her from growing up healthily in a loving environment without any worries.